Sony CRT Monitor

[jeffg]

Last year a buddy of ours in NYC stumbled on a cache of Sony F500R CRT monitors. They were bought by a graphics company as spares but not used, and sat in warehouses for something like 10 or 11 years. We took one only because the image (especially video) quality on them is excellent, and we had forgotten about the resolution/refresh/other advantages of CRTs. The monitor works fine, but once in a while we're getting very brief flashes of bright red (with overscan lines and severe blooming) that points to some kind of G2/voltage problem. After so long unused I'm pretty sure it's something like a failed solder joint (thermal expansion?), or maybe a loose connection at the tube neck (F-series monitors are known for that). I'd also like to check for blown caps, since it was made around the time of the capacitor debacle that plagued computer motherboards and most other electronics. Aside from the above issue everything is perfect on the monitor.. color/geometry/convergence etc.

So to make a long story only slightly shorter, we're looking for someone with specific Sony/Trinitron CRT repair experience to go through the five or maybe six circuit boards and check for problems. There aren't many unused FD Trinitrons left in the US (or the world I think) and we need someone who won't cause more problems than they fix. Even if you're not in California, if you know Sony CRT service procedures (we have the service manual but no test equipment) and still have a proper test/repair setup for CRTs, please respond. We have ways of getting the monitor to you.

Thanks very much!

 

[kb0nes]

Jeff,

I emailed you a copy of the service manual, just in case you don't have it. Not sure if you want to dig into these yourself of not.

Does the problem show any signs of being thermal? Or does it start up right away when the unit is cold?

Do you have more then one of these monitors that exhibits this problem? Or better yet do you have more then one with one working well? Then you could board swap to isolate the problem.

I'm assuming these are about 12 years old now and they were never used? Do you have any idea what environment they were in during their storage?

A capacitor failure is possible if they sat a long time although most of the "bad cap" syndrome was due to heat from use. I don't remember when Sony started to switch to lead free solder but there were solder failures due to the change. Often they would show up only after some decent heat cycles which these monitors haven't had yet. The solder joint failures on the PC boards were most common at connector pins or for joints where there were large component leads, the dissimilar thermal needs of both sides of the join didn't solder well. Finally insure that all the connectors are clean and solid. I'm a fan of the DeOxit products from Caig Labs to eliminate connector problems.

As for service I'm quite sure that there is someone within driving distance that does repair work. Here in Minneapolis there are several shops that could deal with these. A top shelf monitor like these that aren't all full of cat hair is the type of thing a technician just loves to get a chance to work on! At 70+ pounds these are beasts, I can't imagine shipping them would be prudent.

 

[jeffg]

Phil, as far as we can tell it's temperature related. The red flashes are frequent when the monitor is cold and become steadily less so as it warms up. They still occur when it's at full temperature, otherwise I think we'd forget about trying to find the problem. But it sure looks like a failed or cold solder joint, or maybe loose circuit board connection at the neck. Unfortunately we don't have another of these to test or use for spare parts, we also don't know how they were treated in storage because the company is out of business. The monitor endured coast-to-coast UPS shipping and we don't know if that has anything to do with it. The box had no signs of damage when it arrived, it had never been opened and Sony's factory seals/packing were still in place. Aside from that we have no info about its past.

Thanks for the other info. We called the few local contacts we had and none still repair CRT monitors. The good news is both LA and SF are within reach, we were hoping to give the business to an AW member or friend of one if possible.